The Sun Changes Nothing
by Steve the Icecube
Summary: Disaster strikes SmokeClan. The sun has gone, and no one knows why, not even Stormwing. Warriors have gone missing, and no one knows what will happen next.


Emberflight looked up in horror as everything went dark. Yowls went up, and birds sounded calls of alarm.

What had they done wrong? Why was the sun gone? And why now?

Nothing was happening. The Clans were doing what they always did. Hunting, marking borders, looking after kits.

The whole forest was dark, and in her panic to get back to camp, Emberflight's long claws got stuck in a tree. "Ouch!" She mewed, pulling them out gingerly and continuing on.

She reached camp a few moments later, scrambling over the high wall of stones that surrounded the entrance, calling out to the panicing guard, Gingerstorm, that it was only her.

She looked round camp futilely. She knew that Stormwing was not in the clearing.

"Stormwing!" She called.

In the darkness, she could just mae out his broad, dark head poking out of the warrior's den.

"Emberflight!" He mewed, joyfully running up to her and nuzzling her. She licked his ear back, purring.

"Do you know what happened?" She asked.

To her surprise, Stormwing shook his head. Stormwing was always the one with a likely theory for the unusual. That was why he was SmokeClan deputy.

"Cats of SmokeClan! Gather here for a meeting!" Tinystar called, and through the dim light, Emberflight could see the small leader's lithe black and white shape move to the ledge outside her den. Most of the cats were already gathered in the clearing, but now, Shell-leap poked her head out of the nursery in the far side of camp, and the forms of her kits, Nightkit, Lilykit and Jaykit appeared near the entrance.

"As you probably noticed, the sun has disappeared. This has not happened before in our Clan's memory, but I am sure it will be back." Tinystar mewed calmly. "The important thing is that all cats make it back to camp and wait until the sun returns. Go to Stormwing and tell him you are here, and he will send out search parties for various cats.

I licked my mate's ear. "You'll be busy for a bit. I'm here, and ready to go out to search." I whispered, and he nodded gratefully.

It turned out that most cats were in camp, but Kestreldawn was still out with her apprentice Spottedpaw, and Reedfern was also out.

I was sent to the StreamClan border to look for the missing cats with Lionfur, an inexperienced warrior.

We leapt over the high wall in one easy leap, and landed on the soft sand below. "You have a good nose, Lionfur." I mewed. "You lead."

The sky remained dark as we made slow progress towards the border, the only thing guiding us were our whiskers and hearing.

We finally heard the stream separating us from StreamClan, and padded towards it. To our relief, Reedfern was standing by the stream.

"Good! You're here." He mewed. "Do you know what's happening?"

"No." I mewed sadly. "Have you seen Kestreldawn or Spottedpaw?"

"No, but Spottedpaw yowled when the sun disappeared." He mewed anxiously. "I followed her voice, but no one was here."

Lionfur sniffed the ground. "There's blood here." He announced.

* * *

The sun was coming back slowly. Warriors cheered as the thing they relied on so much came back.

Stormwing was worried. Kestreldawn and Spottedpaw had gone missing by the StreamClan border, and blood had been found.

Just before dusk, as the smoke settled on SmokeClan camp, he sent a patrol out. Himself, Emberflight and Reedfern.

Waiting for a StreamClan patrol was tense, but Emberflight sighed in relief as one appeared.

"StreamClan!" Stormwing called.

"What do you want?" Badgersong mewed.

"An apprentice and warrior went missing when the sun disappeared. Do you know where they are?"

"Yes!" Foxpaw piped up. "They're in camp, waiting until the sun reappeared." Badgersong looked harshly at her apprentice.

"We'll get them." She mewed, sighing.

* * *

"Spottedpaw!" Reedfern called brightly, smiling at her.

She smiled at him shyly, licking her paws.

Kestreldawn glared at Reedfern. It was well known that she had a crush on him, and he had a crush on Spottedpaw.

Emberflight smiled. The meaning of it could wait. All she wanted now was her Clan to recover, and they were almost back to normal already.


End file.
